An open letter to assembly members

Spectrum, by William D. Moll

Dear assembly member:

As you know I have watched the current Mat-Su Borough administration with great interest and frustration. You are also aware that the current borough administration has been perceived by many in the community as being anti-development and anti-business. I can cite many specific examples that justify that perception. "Don't come to the Valley, the Mat-Su Borough administration cannot be trusted" is the most commonly echoed statement I hear throughout the community and around the state of Alaska.

In the recent past we have witnessed the anti-development crowd protest every single significant economic development in the Mat-Su (Fred Meyer, Wal-Mart, Port MacKenzie and Hatcher Pass are just a few, with the latest being coal-bed methane exploration). This administration has just stood by and in some instances, I believe, acted in concert with this crowd causing deliberate economic damage to this community. While the borough administration will fervently deny this, they have not initiated one significant economic development project that has resulted in the creation of a single job. Call me cynical, but I cannot think of another administration with such a dismal record.

The latest jab now comes from our chairman of the Planning Commission when she accused the business community of obstructing planning efforts in the borough (Anchorage Daily News Sunday, Jan. 3, "Sharp resigns"). In pertinent part the article quotes Helga Larson as disputing the long held fact (remember the Mat-Su residents voted to decline zoning a few years ago) that planning efforts (zoning) in the borough are moving slowly due to a division in the community. Instead she concludes the reason efforts to zone the borough are moving slowly is due to the influx of retirement-age people from around the state, purchasing their retirement home in the Valley only to be hoodwinked by those younger business people, who are wary of land use issues and are preventing these new arrivals from enjoying retirement.

We all know that statement and analysis is ridiculous. It is, however, insulting to the business community who almost always locate within zoned or protected communities/areas for the very protections Ms. Larson alleges the business community is depriving the retirees. There are plenty of neighborhoods with protections for retirees.

The important message is that comments like Commissioner Larson's only serve to reinforce the perception of anti-development anti-business attached to this administration. It seems this attitude has become standard issue, and has permeated throughout every department, board and commission in the borough. Unfortunately this attitude has led to a disconnect with the business community. The business community is simply tuning out the borough.

I am asking you as a borough assembly member and other assembly members to return balance and fairness to the borough boards and commissions. I am asking you and every assembly member to refuse confirmation or re-confirmation to those individuals who protest issues in public with special interest groups and then be able to determine their fate, as well as those individuals who possess little perspective with regard to the issues.

I am asking you as well as the rest of the assembly to scrutinize and appoint only those individuals who have demonstrated their ability to handle issues fairly, and have not promoted an anti-development anti-business special interest agenda or any other special interest agenda. Anyone who could actively protest economic development in this Valley probably isn't making a living off this economy, and would have a very limited vision of the issues that affect the people who do. Furthermore they certainly aren't addressing the need to create jobs for current and future generations.

This community is growing. We need jobs, not endless protesting and mindless costly studies to delay progress. We need fairness and balance on our boards and commissions to ensure that they serve the interests of the people, all of the people, not the narrow and shallow agenda of special interest groups. We need the special interest groups to get out of borough headquarters.

Also, wasn't it interesting that the resignation of a planning commissioner (with special interest group ties) was the subject of a featured article, in the state's largest newspaper, focused on the lack of planning and divisiveness in the Mat-Su Valley? I'll bet neither the borough mayor nor the borough manager has contacted the journalist to discuss the Mat-Su as being a great place to live and operate a business.

William D. Moll is a Wasilla

resident.